Katherine Rose Adams

Katherine Rose Adams serves as an Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of North Georgia (UNG), where she joined in August 2018 and assumed coordination of the Higher Education Leadership and Practice (HELP) Ed.D. program in 2019. Starting Fall 2025, she will expand her role as Assistant Director of the UNG Center for Teaching, Learning, and Leadership while maintaining her academic position.

Her educational foundation includes:

• Ph.D. in Adult Education from The University of Georgia (2013)
• Graduate Certificate in Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies (2013)
• M.Ed. in Human Resource/Occupational Development (2007)
• B.S. in Psychology (2005)

Dr. Adams' research centers on boundary spanning within university-community partnerships, higher education leadership, minority-serving institutions, and hidden student populations including those experiencing foster care or homelessness. Her work critically examines higher education affordability, open educational resources, and equity considerations across rural contexts and institutional types, with particular attention to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and student mental health.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals consistent thematic threads: boundary spanning behaviors in research-practice partnerships (2013-2017), evolving frameworks for community engagement through systems theory (2014-2021), and contemporary equity-focused investigations into rurality, race, and leadership (2023). Her scholarship spans qualitative, historical, and organizational perspectives while maintaining practical applications for graduate education and institutional development.

As HELP program coordinator, Dr. Adams developed a grant writing academy, peer mentoring program for adult learners, and dissertation support workshops. She chairs doctoral committees and teaches core courses including Dissertation Development, Qualitative Research Methods, and specialized seminars on organizational theory, ethics, and finance in higher education.

Her leadership extends to program design through the HELP Ed.D. curriculum and upcoming collaboration with UNG's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Leadership, reflecting her commitment to developing educational leaders through experiential, community-engaged pedagogy.